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Neuroinflammation May Cause Mental Sluggishness

Wishful

Senior Member
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5,679
Location
Alberta
The problem I have with it is that anti-inflammatories don't seem to reduce my brainfog. :grumpy:

Maybe the anti-inflammatories only block part of the inflammatory response, and, of course, not the part that causes brainfog. Maybe they'll do a follow-up study for the effectiveness of anti-inflammatories on brainfog.
 

Rufous McKinney

Senior Member
Messages
13,249
So the 20 young men who were studied...none of them are sick with ME.

They are healthy people, (is that correct?) who they induced fatigue in....and then also served as the controls.

And no females. Nice.
 

percyval577

nucleus caudatus et al
Messages
1,302
Location
Ik waak up
From the paper
Highlights


Typhoid vaccination induced a transient mild inflammatory state.

Mild inflammation selectively increased alerting-related alpha suppression.

A greater inflammatory response was correlated with more alpha suppression.


News and views in ME/CFS .... Comhaire and Deslypere 2019 say:

In all patients the activity of the high frequency electric waves (Alpha waves in particular) was significantly decreased, whereas slow Theta waves from the cingulate cortex commonly occurred in excess, suggesting continuous activation of the default mode network.

An increase in theta waves was also found in some polio cases, reviewed in comparision to me/cfs in 1998 (I havn´t read already the whole paper). parallels_between_post-polio_fatigue_and_chronic_fatigue.pdf
 
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panckage

Senior Member
Messages
777
Location
Vancouver, BC
The problem I have with it is that anti-inflammatories don't seem to reduce my brainfog. :grumpy:
Me neither. Have you tried putting your head in cold water (eg. Under the tap)? I'm unsure if this is overheating or inflammation but doing this certainly helps my cognition especially when I'm feeling delirious. In cold weather my brain seems to be more functional too
 

Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
5,679
Location
Alberta
Mmmm, no, I haven't tried chilling my head that way. Spending hours outside in winter (down to -40) hasn't made any noticeable difference. Sticking my head in a bucket of icewater (no tap here) sounds ... unpleasant. :eek:

The cerebral hotspots (well, barely measurably warmer than surrounding volumes) were localized, not cooled down by surrounding cooler material, so I don't think the actual temperature is the issue. Chilling the whole brain might worsen the temperature differences, as the inflamed tissue burns more fuel to stay warm, using possibly malfunctioning mitochondria. Head cooling might work for some people, but I think I'll pass on the cold water experiment myself.

Don't want to catch a cold, after all. :ill:
 

Frunobulax

Senior Member
Messages
134
Me neither. Have you tried putting your head in cold water (eg. Under the tap)?

Doesn't work. Check out this video:

Low dose naltrexone is one of the few antiinflammatories that pass the blood-brain barrier. Antiinflammatory diet is IMO the best long-term solution.

Is this paper- actually recommending a suite of TREATMENTS for us?

Jesus, no less than 3 drugs, none of which are necessary if you switch to keto diet.

Insulin resistence/metabolic syndrome is NOT the cause for ME/CFS (as evidenced by plenty of people on low carb diets with excellent insulin sensitivity), and the best way to treat IR is ketogenic diet (and not drugs).
 

Pyrrhus

Senior Member
Messages
4,172
Location
U.S., Earth

Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
5,679
Location
Alberta
I don't know if there's any research on theta EEG waves in ME,

Does anyone here have an EEG machine? It's certainly a good project while we wait for the professionals to solve ME. I see some expensive options available, but one or more simple instrumentation amplifiers and a Raspberry Pi or equivalent microcomputer would do it (plus some electrodes).
 

nyanko_the_sane

Because everyday is Caturday...
Messages
655

pattismith

Senior Member
Messages
3,931
I don't know if there's any research on theta EEG waves in ME, but there may be a correlation between fatigue and a lower "peak alpha frequency":
https://forums.phoenixrising.me/threads/hyperacusis.82939/#post-2326452
Increased prefrontal theta waves in fibro:

Altered theta oscillations in resting EEG of fibromyalgia syndrome patients - PubMed (nih.gov)

Increased theta waves in ME:

Cognitive impairment in fatigue and sleepiness associated conditions - ScienceDirect
 

nyanko_the_sane

Because everyday is Caturday...
Messages
655

Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
5,679
Location
Alberta
A good project for some research group might be to get some cheap wearable EEG units made (it's fairly simple electronics) and have volunteers wear them while they do tasks, and build up a database of brain patterns. Then other groups can order some of those units for their patients, to look for differences. I'm sure lots of PWME would volunteer. Maybe it would show some differences specific to ME.
 

nyanko_the_sane

Because everyday is Caturday...
Messages
655
A good project for some research group might be to get some cheap wearable EEG units made (it's fairly simple electronics)
The problem with a lot of these open source EEG devices is that the spatial resolution is far too low to get much meaningful data. Even some professional 10/20 systems are too low res. The trick is to increase the number of electrodes. The best approach currently is to use fMRI because it has good spatial resolution, but unfortunately poor temporal resolution.

rinpoche_meditation_science.jpg
 
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